1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to an ink composition and a recording method.
2. Related Art
Heretofore, in order to form a coating film having metallic gloss on a printed material, a method using a printing ink in which a gold powder or a silver powder formed, for example, from a brass or aluminum fine powder is contained as a pigment, a foil press printing method using a metal foil, a thermal transfer method using a metal foil, or the like has been used.
However, as for a coating film obtained by using a printing ink in which a gold powder or a silver powder is used, the average particle diameter of the metal powder used is large, which is in the range of 10 μm to 30 μm, and thus, matte metallic gloss can be obtained but it is difficult to obtain specular gloss. Meanwhile, in the foil stamping or the thermal transfer in which a metal foil is used, a method in which an adhesive is coated to a printing medium, a flat and smooth metal foil is pressed thereon, and a recording medium is brought into close contact with a metal foil and heated to thermally fusion-bond the metal foil to the recording medium is adopted. Therefore, relatively good gloss can be obtained, but the number of steps in the production increases, and pressure or heat is applied during the production steps. Accordingly, the recording medium has been limited to, for example, a recording medium that is resistant to heat and deformation.
Recently, a large number of applications of an ink jet in printing have been developed, and one of the applications thereof is a metallic printing. For example, a JP-A-2008-174712 suggests a dispersion and an ink composition, including plate-shaped aluminum particles.
However, the metallic gloss of metallic printing can be obtained by coating a recording medium with fine metal powders, and thus an action of the powders with light cannot be completely removed. That is, from the viewpoints that the pigment is a powder, the optical properties of the powder may remain even after printing in some cases, and a black or brown powder hue has been adhered to, for example, metallic gloss in some cases. Also, an aluminum pigment or a pigment of silver particles with which metallic gloss equivalent to or higher than the aluminum pigment can be expected is blended as a powder with ink, and as a result, there has also been a problem with the hue of the powder in some cases.
An advantage according to some embodiments of the invention is to provide an ink composition expressing metallic gloss with less coloration when being printed on a recording medium, and a recording method therewith.